Seaford’s Spring Fling was back and bigger than ever this weekend in the hamlet’s LIRR parking lot.
“It’s grown quite a bit since 2019,” said Margaret Grub, the president of Seaford’s Chamber of Commerce, which organized the festival in coordination with LI Fairs, an organization that helps produce street festivals on the island, for the first time this year. “Last year we started with the bouncy houses, and that has brought in more people. This year coordinating with LI Fairs, it’s grown a little bit more. Hopefully next year we can be even bigger and better.”
“The community likes it because, as you see, it is crowded,” Grub added, saying that year one had around 45 vendors. “We’ve really built it up over the last few years.”
The hundreds of Fling attendees had their pick of roughly 70 artisan booths and food stalls, some of which were among the island’s premier food trucks like Extreme Empanadas; Cone Depot, which sells chicken and waffles in to-go cones; hot dog truck HowUDogin’ and Say Dipped, offering chocolate-covered fruits and cookies, alongside trademark fair foods like roasted corn, churros, cotton candy, candied nuts, funnel cakes and fresh lemonade.
“There’s nothing like people walking around clutching onto the end of a roasted corn on the cob,” said Oleg Zivkovich, the owner of LI Fairs. “We have pickles. We have a lot of food. It feels genuinely like a community event.”
Many of the clothing, jewelry, handbag, custom wood crafts, hand painted glass, toy, snack, baked goods, soap and dog care vendors come from the 516 and 631 area codes, said Zivkovich, like Ira Reiter of The Barking Biscuit LLC, who homebakes all of his dog treats in his Wantaugh home.
“We just love the community. We’re local. We have a lot of our customer base coming right from here,” Reiter said, who added that he thought the fair’s increased size and offerings brought more families out this year. “It’s a very family friendly event.”
Across the lot from Reiter’s booth was a kids zone, packed with three bouncy houses, which dozens of face-painted children bounced across for a $20 ticket that covered an ice cream cone.
Others listened to T Minus Ten, a local Seaford band, which sang nostalgic covers.
“I love the band. I think that’s a great addition,” said Joe Mangiapenello, owner of Joe’s Wooden Creations, who was selling his woodworking under a white tent. “This has been better than an average fair for me. I find that people have been very friendly, willing to talk, and if not interested in buying, at least taking a card.”
“I like being in an environment like this,” he added. “It’s been a great day.”
“There’s a lot of things going on. There are people in wheelchairs, people riding around on bicycles, people with kids,” Zivkovich said. “It’s an event where the neighborhood is just strolling in.”
